Unwrap 72-character wrapped commit message lines when creating PRs #8255

Copilot · 2025-12-10T09:47:41Z

When creating a PR from a single commit, the extension now unwraps commit message body lines that were wrapped at 72 characters, matching GitHub's native behavior.

Changes

Added unwrapCommitMessageBody function: Joins consecutive non-formatted lines while preserving:
- Blank lines (paragraph breaks)
- List items (-, *, +, numbered)
- Blockquotes (>)
- Indented code blocks (distinguishes between actual code blocks and list item continuations)
- Fenced code blocks (```)
Updated titleAndBodyFrom: Applies unwrapping to commit message bodies before setting PR description
Test coverage: Added 17 test cases for wrapped paragraphs, lists, quotes, indented blocks, fenced code blocks, nested lists, list continuations, and mixed content

Example

Before:

This is a long commit message that has been wrapped at 72
characters to fit conventional Git formatting standards.

After:

This is a long commit message that has been wrapped at 72 characters to fit conventional Git formatting standards.

Implementation Details

The function uses state tracking to correctly handle:

Fenced code blocks: Content within ``` markers is preserved without modification
List context: Tracks when processing list items to distinguish between:
- Indented code blocks (4+ spaces outside of lists)
- List item continuations (2+ spaces within lists)
- Nested list items (list markers with leading whitespace)

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Join commit message lines on PR creation</issue_title>
<issue_description>Both on GitHub and this extension, there's functionality where if you're creating a PR from a single commit, it will use the commit subject as the PR title and the commit message body as the PR description. In Git commits, it's conventional to wrap commit messages at 72 characters (VS Code even has a default ruler for this) for command-line tooling.

In GitHub, there's some smartness to unwrap those lines when translating the commit message body into the PR description. It would be nice if this extension had that functionality as well.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes Join commit message lines on PR creation #5740

✨ Let Copilot coding agent set things up for you — coding agent works faster and does higher quality work when set up for your repo.

Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

- Add unwrapCommitMessageBody function to join wrapped lines - Preserve blank lines, list items, quotes, and indented content - Add comprehensive tests for various unwrapping scenarios - Matches GitHub's behavior when converting commit messages to PR descriptions Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

- Extract regex pattern to named constant PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN - Replace deprecated substr() with slice() - Improve regex to match only spaces/tabs explicitly instead of \s - Add detailed comments explaining the pattern Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

- Place hyphen at end of character class for clarity - Extract hasBody condition to avoid duplication Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

justingrant

Great to see this PR, but I see a few problems.

justingrant · 2025-12-11T08:11:56Z

src/github/folderRepositoryManager.ts

+	if (!body) {
+		return body;
+	}
+
+	// Pattern to detect lines that should be preserved (not joined):
+	// - Lines starting with whitespace (indented/code blocks)
+	// - Lines starting with list markers (*, -, +, >)
+	// - Lines starting with numbered list items (e.g., "1. ")
+	const PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN = /^[ \t*+>\-]|^\d+\./;
+
+	const lines = body.split('\n');
+	const result: string[] = [];
+	let i = 0;
+
+	while (i < lines.length) {
+		const line = lines[i];
+
+		// Preserve blank lines
+		if (line.trim() === '') {
+			result.push(line);
+			i++;
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		// Check if this line should NOT be joined with the next
+		// Lines that start with special formatting characters should be preserved
+		const shouldPreserveLine = PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN.test(line);
+
+		if (shouldPreserveLine) {
+			result.push(line);
+			i++;
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		// Start accumulating lines that should be joined
+		let joinedLine = line;
+		i++;
+
+		// Keep joining lines until we hit a blank line or a line that shouldn't be joined
+		while (i < lines.length) {
+			const nextLine = lines[i];
+
+			// Stop at blank lines
+			if (nextLine.trim() === '') {
+				break;
+			}
+
+			// Stop at lines that start with special formatting
+			if (PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN.test(nextLine)) {
+				break;
+			}
+
+			// Join this line with a space
+			joinedLine += ' ' + nextLine;
+			i++;
+		}
+
+		result.push(joinedLine);
+	}
+
+	return result.join('\n');


A few problems with your code:

Having two nested loops is unnecessarily complicated.

You don't support code blocks that are fenced with ```

Detection of indented code is flawed because it doesn't account for nested list items or list item continuations that have 4+ spaces at the start of the line.

Here's a revised version:

Suggested change

if (!body) {

return body;

}

// Pattern to detect lines that should be preserved (not joined):

// - Lines starting with whitespace (indented/code blocks)

// - Lines starting with list markers (*, -, +, >)

// - Lines starting with numbered list items (e.g., "1. ")

const PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN = /^[ \t*+>\-]|^\d+\./;

const lines = body.split('\n');

const result: string[] = [];

let i = 0;

while (i < lines.length) {

const line = lines[i];

// Preserve blank lines

if (line.trim() === '') {

result.push(line);

i++;

continue;

}

// Check if this line should NOT be joined with the next

// Lines that start with special formatting characters should be preserved

const shouldPreserveLine = PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN.test(line);

if (shouldPreserveLine) {

result.push(line);

i++;

continue;

}

// Start accumulating lines that should be joined

let joinedLine = line;

i++;

// Keep joining lines until we hit a blank line or a line that shouldn't be joined

while (i < lines.length) {

const nextLine = lines[i];

// Stop at blank lines

if (nextLine.trim() === '') {

break;

}

// Stop at lines that start with special formatting

if (PRESERVE_LINE_PATTERN.test(nextLine)) {

break;

}

// Join this line with a space

joinedLine += ' ' + nextLine;

i++;

}

result.push(joinedLine);

}

return result.join('\n');

const rawLines = body.split(/\r?\n/);

const result: string[] = [];

let inFencedCodeBlock = false;

let prevWasCode = false;

for (const rawLine of rawLines) {

const line = rawLine.trimEnd(); // Remove trailing space

const trimmed = line.trim();

const prev = result[result.length - 1];

const isList = (s: string) => /^\s*[>\*\-\+]\s/.test(s);

const indentSpaces = line.match(/^( *)/)?.[1].length ?? 0;

const isListItemContinuation: boolean =

!prevWasCode && isList(prev) && indentSpaces >= 2;

const isIndentedCode: boolean =

!isListItemContinuation && (indentSpaces >= 4 || line.startsWith('\t'));

const isCode: boolean = inFencedCodeBlock || isIndentedCode;

if (line.startsWith('```')) {

// Start or end of fenced code block is never joined

inFencedCodeBlock = !inFencedCodeBlock;

result.push(line);

} else if (!line || isCode || isList(line) || !prev || !result.length) {

// Empty/code/list lines never join with the previous line.

// Also don't join the first line, or if previous line is blank.

result.push(line);

} else {

// Otherwise, join with previous line

result[result.length - 1] = prev + ' ' + trimmed;

}

prevWasCode = isCode;

}

return result.join('\n');

@copilot address this comment.

alexr00

@copilot These notes from @justingrant are good, address them:

You don't support code blocks that are fenced with ```

Detection of indented code is flawed because it doesn't account for nested list items or list item continuations that have 4+ spaces at the start of the line.

- Support fenced code blocks with ``` markers - Fix indented code detection to distinguish between: - Actual code blocks (4+ spaces, not in list context) - List item continuations (2+ spaces in list context) - Nested list items (detected by list markers with indentation) - Track list context state to handle list continuations correctly - Add comprehensive tests for all new scenarios Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

Copilot · 2025-12-18T11:50:55Z

@copilot These notes from @justingrant are good, address them:

You don't support code blocks that are fenced with ```...

Addressed both issues in commit 1072b95:

Fenced code blocks: Now detects and preserves code blocks with ``` markers, preventing lines within fenced blocks from being joined.
Indented code detection: Fixed by tracking list context state:
- Lines with 4+ spaces are preserved as code blocks only when NOT in a list context
- When in a list (after seeing a list item), lines with 2+ spaces are treated as list continuations and preserved
- Nested list items are detected by their list markers with leading whitespace
- List context resets on blank lines

Added 8 new tests covering fenced code blocks, nested lists, list continuations, and complex mixed content scenarios.

alexr00

@justingrant, thanks for pointing these out!

You don't support code blocks that are fenced with ```

Detection of indented code is flawed because it doesn't account for nested list items or list item continuations that have 4+ spaces at the start of the line.

justingrant · 2026-01-04T18:29:55Z

@alexr00 @copilot - After testing this PR, there's a problem: line breaks are not removed inside list items. For example, I'd expect the following commit markdown to end up as 2 lines in the resulting PR markdown. But it remains as 4 lines:

This is a list item with two lines
that have a line break between them
- This is a nested list item that also has
  two lines that should have been merged

See #8255 (comment)

alexr00 · 2026-01-05T11:07:09Z

@justingrant thanks for trying it out! Opened #8335 to address this.

See #8255 (comment)

justingrant · 2026-01-05T22:37:43Z

Opened #8335 to address this.

Thanks @alexr00 for improving this! Unfortunately I think the follow-up PR might have some problems too, and may need some more tests. See #8335 (comment)

Copilot AI self-assigned this Dec 10, 2025

Initial plan

c43b739

Copilot AI assigned alexr00 Dec 10, 2025

Copilot started work on behalf of alexr00 December 10, 2025 09:48 View session

Copilot AI and others added 4 commits December 10, 2025 09:51

Initial plan for commit message line unwrapping

7777100

Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

Refine code based on additional review feedback

3687160

- Place hyphen at end of character class for clarity - Extract hasBody condition to avoid duplication Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Add functionality to unwrap commit message lines on PR creation~~ Unwrap 72-character wrapped commit message lines when creating PRs Dec 10, 2025

Copilot AI requested a review from alexr00 December 10, 2025 10:04

Copilot finished work on behalf of alexr00 December 10, 2025 10:04

justingrant reviewed Dec 11, 2025

View reviewed changes

Copilot started work on behalf of alexr00 December 18, 2025 10:17 View session

Co-authored-by: alexr00 <[email protected]>

44eb4e6

Copilot finished work on behalf of alexr00 December 18, 2025 10:20

alexr00 requested changes Dec 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

Copilot started work on behalf of alexr00 December 18, 2025 11:39 View session

Copilot AI requested a review from alexr00 December 18, 2025 11:51

Copilot finished work on behalf of alexr00 December 18, 2025 11:51

alexr00 reviewed Dec 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

alexr00 marked this pull request as ready for review December 18, 2025 12:05

alexr00 approved these changes Dec 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

alexr00 enabled auto-merge (squash) December 18, 2025 12:05

vs-code-engineering bot added this to the December / January 2026 milestone Dec 18, 2025

Tyriar approved these changes Dec 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

lszomoru approved these changes Dec 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

alexr00 merged commit e1635cb into main Dec 18, 2025
6 checks passed

alexr00 deleted the copilot/add-unwrap-commit-message-functionality branch December 18, 2025 12:10

alexr00 added a commit that referenced this pull request Jan 5, 2026

Improve commit line unwrapping

640c2a2

See #8255 (comment)

alexr00 mentioned this pull request Jan 5, 2026

Improve commit line unwrapping #8335

Merged

alexr00 added a commit that referenced this pull request Jan 5, 2026

Improve commit line unwrapping (#8335)

338ca18

See #8255 (comment)

alexr00 mentioned this pull request Jan 6, 2026

Improve commit line break unwrapping #8345

Open

Copilot AI mentioned this pull request Jan 23, 2026

Improve commit line break unwrapping for variable-length list markers #8417

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Unwrap 72-character wrapped commit message lines when creating PRs #8255

Unwrap 72-character wrapped commit message lines when creating PRs #8255

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Unwrap 72-character wrapped commit message lines when creating PRs #8255

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